i've heard this one before. a guy told me he wouldn't shake my hand or knuckle up or anything because he was worried about me robbing his chi. he got upset when i asked him if he robs himself when he takes a shower.

well, I've had my share of students who have a lack of control in one way or another.

People who just hit too hard - I've been dealing with them almost since I began training. When I was a beginner, I learned how to block - and I was quick, too - but I had a hard time moving aside. So, whether I blocked something or missed it, I took the hit. I was also determined (maybe a bit arrogant?), and I just sucked it up and learned how to take it. As a result, senseis knew that I could take a hit well, and so they parternered me with the guys who needed help with their self-control... I'm glad actually, it helped me take hits better, and I got better focus and control myself, hitting just the tip of their noses...

The other kind of lack of self-control is, of course, the student that just can't pay attention to anything for more than a second and/or without interjecting their own opinion and experiences. Plenty of those, and man can they be trying.

One guy I knew was a junior shodan (meaning he was under 16). I had just passed my shodan test and he had passed his about two years earlier, but had stopped training regularly after that. He was used to coming in every so often and giving advice to kids who were practicing, and joking around with some of the other senior students. Well, when he started attending class again, he was kind of a goof-off. The class was sparring once, and he's trying to talk socially with me in the middle of our fight...! Making jokes, saying stuff like, "oh, that was a good punch," or "too slow! try it like this next time," and he would constantly drop his hands and go into "casual" mode after each contact.Luckily for me (not for him so much), we went into continuous sparring (sparring+takedowns+grappling) after that. I trapped his front leg and just pushed him over, then grabbed his head.

...He never wanted to spar with me after that. go figure.

Fortunately I've had some great people to work with too. Guys who are miles ahead of you in their training but really understand how to teach you something without beating up on you or losing on purpose. Guys who show soo much genuine appreciation when you show them some fine point that they'd never even heard about.

There is one guy at my dojo now who is just got his brown belt. He's extreemly personable. Talks all the time in a genuine, friendly way; a big guy who's language is sort of...strong? yea, that's a good way to put it. But he understands the concept of respect as it relates to karate. he knows and understands many techniques better than other students who outrank him, but he is so patient and still makes it obvious that he's learning from them. In the dojo, and most of the time outside, he calls his senseis "sir" - even though a lot of them are half his age. He's one of those that you're just proud to call someone you train with.

I never had these kind of people (moose comming out of trees was funny) but we had this one guy , we all used to call him a peanut (without him knowing, ahm) simply because he was amazingly in the exact shape of a peanut.

Now, his talent was unbliveably near zero.After nearly 6 months of practice he knew nothing (Him and I started at the same time. While I knew the first two Katas he didnt know any. And he didn't do any move even near right.)

He was realy fat, he probebly weights as about 110 KG (Sorry I'm not sure how much is it in pounds - thogu its enough) So when we had wrestling I couldnt lift him, but all I had to do is kinda let him fall.

Like Oldman's experience, my worst case was kids who didn't want to be there. Mom was dedicated, but her boy & girl would just SIT DOWN if you weren't watching. And the girl kept on bugging me DURING a class why she couldn't go buy a soda. Mom finally had to quit - I guess she was outvoted.

I think one of the worst students I had, unfortunately started off at the same time I did, however he was younger by three years. Thus, when I hit green belt (Its required to Sempai if you want to continue on in the dojo I was in.) I ended up his Sempai even though he was a rank behind me. He did everything in his power to try to mess me up, including telling the class all the techniques I was showing were incorrect, trying to correct my counting, etc, etc...

It was very disrespectful. He ended up stopping once the other students got bored with his childishness, lol. Other then that, most of the students and people I pracitced with were good.

*Note : Although at one point I was in a Tournament in San Diego, and someone tried to walk up and take our weapons, lol. I thought it was the wierdest thing. It was a Dojo from Spain I believe, it was a few years ago and we were all horrified because none of us knew any spanish, so I screamed out. "PALO ENFUAGO!" (I think thats how it is spelled) Which basically is. "Stick on Fire!" and the guy drops our weapons in the case and bolts, lol.

Thats about it. Other then psychotic children who blocked with their face.

Here's my favorite. Students that Show up, quit for three months, show up three times a session, and basically take a year to reach Green Belt.

There's this one student that was a High Green when I was a white belt. I'm now a Green belt lol. This guy does his forms like he's drunk (too fast, too sloppy). And he never ever kicks above his own belt level. Even in sparring.

Then there's another student who is a fellow Green Belt. He can kick well, but sometimes his kata looks subpar. The really annoying thing about him is he thinks he outranks me because he's been a green belt before. So he tries to make me move out the senior belt position in my row.

Then there's the worst of them... This one kid was an Orange Belt when I was a White Belt. Now we are both Green Belts, and he too thinks he outranks me. Even though I got my green belt three weeks before him. The guy not only sucks at forms, but he doesn't even remember Dan Gun, or Half of Do San.

One of these days I'm taking my old Blue/Red belt certificates to class to shut these kids up.